Chapter 408: Battle of the Rock Mountain — The Crashing Boulder, The Trapped Knight

The giant boulder came rumbling down from the high rock wall at the edge of the Rock Passage, and the Northland Wolf King, who happened to be in the passage, was at that moment pinned down by the Human Knight beneath its belly, which had trapped its two front paws.

It was difficult for it to exert force to dodge at this moment using only its two hind legs, especially since the front part of its body was entirely supported by its head pressed against the ground to keep from collapsing.

It had intended to rely on the Empty Wolf Skin it controlled to barely push itself away, but Knight Lanisha did not want to let this excellent opportunity slip; she used the rock wall to rebound and used her Single-handed Heavy Sword to strike and send the Empty Wolf Skin, which was pushing against the side of the Wolf King, flying away.

It was too late for the Wolf King to find another way; it had no choice but to squeeze its eyes shut and twist its head with all its might, trying its best to avoid the direct impact of the falling boulder.

Then, amidst the intense tremors and the deafening roar in the passage, the falling boulder first struck the ground of the passage in front of the Wolf King, shattering the entire boulder into several larger pieces of Suishi, which then exploded and scattered outward.

The clattering Stone fragments struck the front of the Wolf King's body. One of the largest pieces of Suishi was hit by the Empty Wolf Skin—which the Wolf King had managed to control and send flying back at the last moment—and the impact changed the fragment's direction, causing it to miss the Wolf King's head and merely graze past its back.

Although it had barely avoided this large piece, there was no way to avoid the other, smaller stones. These things clattered and scattered in all directions, centered on the boulder's impact point, striking the Wolf King head-on.

The Wolf King had no choice but to curl its head and body into a ball, enduring this barrage amidst pained howls.

At the same time, it kept its entire body pressed to the ground, attempting to pin the Human Knight down and deny her any chance to cause trouble. However, just as the boulder landed, Knight Lanisha drew the Armor-piercing Rapier from her waist and, before being pinned by the Wolf King's belly, thrust the sword upward; with a faint "squelch," the entire blade was buried into the Wolf King's abdomen.

At the very moment the boulder landed, Jier and the others were shouting loudly about protection and defense from atop the Wooden Wall. The Hunters all crouched down, using the half-meter-high Wooden Wall as cover to block the incoming Suishi. As for the smaller stone fragments that rained down afterward, they could only use their sturdy quivers held over their heads for protection.

Added to the leather caps and Cloak hoods that everyone wore, they did not need to worry about the falling small fragments.

Jier, however, did not care about these small flying stones at all; he simply held his Shield in front of his body, primarily covering his face and neck from the direction of the falling boulder.

The instant the boulder crashed down, the exploding fine stone fragments were like a wide-range shotgun blast, flying horizontally like a spray of stone rain.

The entire front of Jier's body felt as if it had been struck by a heavy punch; he stepped back slightly, and a series of clattering impact sounds rang out from his body.

Sparks even flew from the surface of the metal Shield as it collided with the small Suishi. However, he could not see them himself.

After enduring this blow, Jier quickly lowered his Shield and poked his head out to look at the Northland Wolves that had charged and gathered under the Wooden Wall.

They were in a state of disarray; the vast majority of the Northland Wolves had blood staining the Wolf Skin on one side of their bodies—these were subcutaneous wounds caused by the small Suishi. Some of the unlucky ones, those that had been looking directly at the boulder the moment it landed, had their heads and faces smashed by the exploding fragments. Many of the Northland Wolves had their noses completely crushed, or in the place where their eyeballs used to be in their eye sockets, an irregular Stone was now embedded. Many of their originally upright ears had also been carried away by the flying stones, leaving only half a shattered ear on their wolf heads.

Seeing the miserable state of the Northland Wolves, Jier knew how could this opportunity not be seized.

He did not know the situation of the Wolf King and Knight Lanisha at the bend of the passage, but he knew he had to shoulder his own responsibilities and tasks here.

Bracing his Shield against the Wooden Wall, Jier jumped down from the wall.

His taut feet landed heavily on the body of a Northland Wolf that was lying on its side, howling in pain. This heavy impact crushed the Northland Wolf's body, and knowing this wolf was done for, Jier paid it no more mind.

After landing, amidst the fingernail-sized stones still falling sporadically from the sky, Jier swung his Long Sword, hacking left and right, killing the Northland Wolves one by one as they huddled on the ground howling.

A brave adult Northland Wolf resisted Jier's current actions, but just as it was about to rush over to bite Jier's arm, it was struck directly on the head by a falling stone from above. Without its front paws to protect its head as a cushion, this "brave" fellow was hit squarely on the crown, and then, dazed, it had its brain destroyed by a direct thrust from Jier's sword.

The rain of stones only lasted for that one burst. Jier felt that the Northland Wolves were now unable to resist and that using the Long Sword was somewhat troublesome, so after stabbing the "brave" Northland Wolf to death, he took the Two-handed Axe from his back. Accompanied by a blue glow radiating from the axe's blue blade—the purpose of which he did not know—he used the axe to heavily hack to death all the Northland Wolves that had suffered varying degrees of injury.

While hacking these weakly resisting Northland Wolves to death, Jier discovered that ever since this axe had changed before today, its power had been greatly enhanced.

Although this axe had been very powerful before, it was mostly due to its weight and the fact that the silver-white blade was very sharp; the two combined naturally made it very formidable in battle.

Even a Northland Wolf could have its head severed by a single axe blow to the neck.

But now, after the blue glow radiated from its blade, Jier was astonished by the power of the axe when he swung it.

When he hacked at a Northland Wolf on the ground, the area struck looked as if it had been hit by the axe multiple times; the grazed wounds looked as if they had been slashed, and the direct wounds looked as if they had been struck by a Heavy Cleave from a two-handed axe.

And when Jier performed a Heavy Cleave with both hands toward the head of an adult Northland Wolf, this hard wolf head was like a piece of winter wood, split in two by the axe, cleanly and without hesitation.

Soon, the Hunters also joined the battle, if shooting the Northland Wolves that lacked the strength to resist could be called a battle.

When Jier severed the two hind legs of the last Northland Wolf that was scurrying back, a Hunter then hit the Northland Wolf's chest with an Arrow as it fell to the ground; the Arrow pierced the wolf's heart, quickly ending the life of this last Northland Wolf.

"Hoo, phew, hoo, phew." Jier panted heavily; although the power of this axe had been enhanced, it was still just as heavy, and swinging it wantonly still left Jier gasping for air.

Putting the axe back on his back and locking it in place, Jier retrieved the Long Sword that was stuck in the stabbed Northland Wolf, and at the same time, he gripped the Shield hanging on his left forearm tightly.

"Phew. Should we go take a look over there? The lack of sound makes me feel something is wrong." Jier lifted his blood-covered Faceplate and asked the old Hunter on the Wooden Wall.

The four old Hunters were also very nervous at this moment; after all, among them, the one with the most real combat power was still Lady Lanisha, but quite some time had passed since the boulder rolled down and they had finished clearing the Northland Wolves that had rushed to the Wooden Wall.

If the Knight and the Wolf King were fine, they should have started fighting again by now. But they were only a few dozen meters away, yet they saw no movement, only the Northland Wolves howling at the entrance of the Rock Passage.

If both had been severely injured by the boulder, that would be truly terrible, and the subsequent development of events would be hard to predict.

"Jier, you go take a look. Be careful; if the Wolf King is still there, you must retreat immediately," an old Hunter said loudly to Jier.

Closing his Faceplate, Jier nodded, turned, and strode toward the place where the boulder had landed.

The ground was full of dead or dying Northland Wolves. In the places where the Metal Clamps were set, many Northland Wolves were not caught by the clamps and then shot by bows and arrows, but had all died from the impact of the scattered stone fragments that flew out after the boulder landed, even though they had only been hit by one or two arrows and had not died initially.

Several Northland Wolves had their heads smashed by the boulder. At the same time, Jier also noticed that all the Metal Clamps that had not been stepped on by the Northland Wolves had been triggered by the tremors of the falling boulder; all their teeth were closed, and some Metal Clamps had even been smashed by the stones.

After walking a few steps past the wreckage of the boulder, he turned the corner of the Rock Passage and looked.

Jier was given a big fright.

Because right before his eyes, the giant Wolf King was lying under the rock wall on one side of the Rock Passage, and it was staring at him with wide eyes.

Stared at by this pair of giant beast eyes, Jier felt the hair all over his body stand up. If he hadn't urinated before the battle started, Jier even felt he might have wet his pants right then.

Of course, even being stared at by the Wolf King like this, he reacted quickly. He pulled his Shield back to stand in front of his chest, and although his legs felt weak, he still moved left and right, retreating toward the wreckage of the boulder that had fallen behind him.

As Jier moved, the Wolf King's giant beast eyes also turned, but they remained fixed on Jier, this Human.

With his gaze passing through the eye holes of his Faceplate and using the Shield to block half of the Wolf King's line of sight, Jier locked eyes with this fierce beast.

"Gulp." He swallowed a mouthful of saliva; he was truly quite afraid.

This fear was not based on Jier's terror of the monster's horror, but simply on the knowledge that the Wolf King could swat him away or to death with a single claw.

But just after Jier had been staring at the Wolf King for a moment, he keenly discovered from the other's eyes that, compared to the previous Wolf King, the Wolf King at this moment gave him a feeling far less severe than before.

After all, he had only been scanned by the Wolf King's gaze from a very far distance before, and at that time he could feel his heart and soul tremble, but staring at the Wolf King from such a close distance now, he didn't even feel the Wolf King's gaze looked any more ferocious than that of an ordinary Northland Wolf.

This wasn't right!

He took another look.

Only then did Jier discover that in the very center of the Wolf King's massive head, there was an impact mark the size of a human head. The fur in that small area had even been scraped off by the impact, and there was a slight depression there, with high-temperature blood slowly seeping out and emitting smoke.

Could it be that the Wolf King had been smashed stupid by the scattered boulder fragments?

Jier thought to himself.

As soon as this thought emerged, his heart began to thump, and a thought sprouted in his mind, instantly growing into a towering tree.

Kill it!

Kill the leader of this Northern Wolf pack!

This is an honor you can boast about for a lifetime!

Wasn't it you who designed the boulder trap that stunned it?

This honor is yours!

Go, quickly!

Jier could not help but take small steps forward. The white light on the surface of the Long Sword held in his hand seemed to sense Jier's will; it was stimulated, swelling and pulsing, the white light growing in waves, ready to release all its stored power at any moment.

"Gulp." Jier swallowed his saliva once more, but this time, the movement of his throat was not out of fear, but purely driven by the glory of the victory he was about to achieve.

The Wolf King's vision was blurred; the small Human Warrior seemed to appear five times over in front of it, though it knew there was actually only one.

Scattered, bright white spots appeared before its eyes, dancing and then vanishing, accompanied by waves of pain from the top of its head, making it very difficult to focus much attention.

Yet even so, it strained its numb eyelids, opening its eyes wide to stare at the small person before it.

It was the king of the Northern Wolves; it could not be defeated by a Human through such a sneak attack!

The small person holding a sword and shield was startled by its wide-open eyes and immediately retreated, cautiously hiding behind the wreckage of the boulder.

This is good, just like this.

A Human of this strength should have such a reaction when facing it. In its view, compared to the pathetic state of other animals and beasts that were scared witless and closed their eyes to await death when facing it, wasn't this look—typical of a Human Warrior, both fearful and full of Yongqi—just right?

But just as its vision swam and it felt miserable, the Human Warrior opposite seemed to have gathered his courage again and circled out from behind the boulder wreckage. And he emitted a scent it did not like.

Although dizzy and muddled, the Wolf King's sensitive nose still caught a whiff of a bad scent from the Human Warrior.

Damn it! Such a weak, tiny Human, actually intending to try and sneak attack it while it was indisposed?

How bold!

The Wolf King panted heavily, barely managing to control its numb and aching body, pulling a claw from beneath itself, and with the claw trembling, it swiped at the small Human Warrior before it!

The Wolf King suddenly pulled out a claw as huge as him and swiped directly toward Jier.

Although in Jier's eyes this strike was a far cry from the Wolf King's previous standards, just by the size and weight of this claw, even if it only pressed down on him, Jier would not be able to flip over.

After all, the difference in strength was far, far too great.

So Jier immediately dodged cautiously, sticking to the rock wall on the other side of the Rock Passage, trying his best to put as much distance as possible between himself and the Wolf King.

Thud.

The Wolf King's swipe missed, smashing heavily into the ground. Then, with a crisp cracking sound, the Wolf King's hard, sharp claws crushed the rock they made contact with.

Jier breathed a sigh of relief; it was fortunate he was cautious and didn't foolishly think that just because the Wolf King was wounded, he could take advantage of it.

Just at this moment, a painful groan came from beneath the Wolf King's belly.

As soon as Jier heard it, he knew it was the voice of Knight Lanisha, though he had never heard this steadfast female Knight emit such a weak, pained moan.

His red eyes darted, and Jier shouted aloud: "Knight Lanisha! How are you?"

"Ah, damn it, haah, it's burning me to death! Jier! Help me! Come quickly!" The voice came from under the Wolf King's belly.

Jier noted where the sound came from; he immediately judged that Knight Lanisha was pinned by the wounded Wolf King and seemed to be seriously injured.

He locked eyes with the Wolf King's huge yellow beast pupils again, confirming that the Wolf King's eyes were still the same as before—though they looked terrifying and mighty, they were still slightly unfocused and dull.

Perhaps it was still dizzy?

But judging by the swipe just now and the way it had been staring at him, the Wolf King still retained consciousness; it had just been hit in the head.

But Jier knew that this Wolf King, which was no different from a Magic Beast, might have powerful physical recovery abilities; who knew when it might regain consciousness, thrash about, and bite Jier to death in one go.

In this narrow space, he had nowhere to hide even if he wanted to. He simply couldn't pull away enough distance to react.

Jier felt a sense of urgency and hurriedly shuffled along the rock wall to the opposite side of the Wolf King's belly. Looking down, he only saw one of Knight Lanisha's arms, covered in Metal Armor, exposed, while the rest of her was pinned under the Wolf King's belly.

Jier noticed that the Wolf King seemed unable to see him at this moment, which made him breathe a sigh of relief and simultaneously grow bolder.

He hurried over and grabbed Knight Lanisha's Metal Armor arm.

"Heh-ha!" He pulled directly, ho, it didn't budge.

He didn't know how much the Wolf King weighed, but he roughly knew how much the armored Knight Lanisha weighed. He estimated that Knight Lanisha without her armor weighed about eighty kilograms, heavier than him, but not by much. The real weight lay in the armor Knight Lanisha wore all over her body.

This set of armor, clearly forged from refined steel, was very thick; although it was armor used by a female Knight, he estimated the weight to be at least one hundred and fifty kilograms or more.

Twice her body weight.

Only a powerhouse of the Knight Rank with monster-like strength could use such a thing.

Not to mention that Knight Lanisha wore this set of armor all day long, except when resting or sleeping. It was truly terrifying. What was even more terrifying was that Knight Lanisha would occasionally even jump directly while wearing the armor, jumping over ten meters straight up and down, and could jump dozens of meters in one go when leaping forward.

Honestly, Jier had also thought to himself at times, how would one deal with an enemy like Knight Lanisha?

What should one do?

He thought for a long time, and the conclusion was that with his current strength, there was simply no possibility of resistance. If they really fought, it would be very difficult to even escape with his life.

Back to the present.

Jier pulled hard but failed to pull Knight Lanisha out, but at least it let Knight Lanisha, who was pinned underneath, know that Jier was currently trying to save her.

"Jier! It's all because of this damn blood! Ah, it's burning me to death. I'll count to three, and then you pull!" The voice of the still-unseen Knight Lanisha came over.

But what was this blood the Knight was talking about?

There was no time for Jier to think too much.

"One!"

Jier gripped the Knight's arm tightly, his feet planted firmly on the ground.

"Two!"

He saw that the area beneath the Wolf King's belly, which vibrated with its breathing, seemed to be lifted up slightly.

"Three!"

Jier immediately gripped the Knight Armor arm with both arms, while his legs and waist provided the real force. Because the structure of the Human body dictates that the strength of one's arms is far inferior to the strength of the waist, abdomen, and legs.

"Ahhhhh!" As Jier pulled hard backward, Knight Lanisha was slowly pulled out entirely after the Wolf King's belly was lifted slightly.

But immediately, a high heat was also released from the gap at the bottom of the abdomen of Knight Lanisha and the Wolf King.

Jier immediately thought of the time when the Wolf King was previously active; its entire body had a layer of high heat released from it. What if the source of that high heat was the blood throughout its body?

He then thought that Knight Lanisha, who was pinned underneath, must have dealt a fierce blow to the Wolf King's abdomen before being pinned. But this very blow had harmed her.

Because Jier looked down and saw that the Knight Lanisha who had been pulled out now had most of her armor radiating high heat, and a short cape that had been attached to the back of her armor as a decoration was stained with some burning red liquid and had been burned to ashes.